LONDON – Best-selling British novelist Ken Follett bid $3,185 at a London charity auction to appear in another author's next book.

The millionaire thriller writer was taking part in the "Immortality Auction" – a charity event that allows members of the public to pay to star in a bestseller.

Follett won the right to appear in the next book by British cult fantasy writer Terry Pratchett. "I want to appear as a giant but Terry is making no promises," Follett said in a statement. "All he asked me is how I want to die, which is a little disconcerting."

Pratchett's "Discworld" series dominated a recent survey of Britain's best-selling books of all time.

The auction raised money for the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, which supports refugees and asylum seekers. Follett was also one of nine authors selling a place in their next novel.

ATHENS, Ga. – Dodge ball players at the University of Georgia take their sport so seriously that they insist on calling it "deathball."

A full-contact deathball league that started about two years ago was recently recognized by the school, allowing it to receive some student-activity fees.

League founder James Miller said the game is played five-on-five, complete with "prison rules" – tackling, slamming and leg sweeping. Players of the school's newest club sport show off their cuts and bruises like varsity letters.

"We play with no safety gear whatsoever, but our referees and commissioner do everything possible to protect our players from any injury," Miller said. "The mutual respect of the players for each other is what really protects them."

"So far, there have been no serious injuries," he said.

Deathball began as a way for Miller and his friends to kill time after watching the TV show "South Park." Slowly, it began to gain popularity among their friends, eventually expanding to eight teams.

The league champion team will be determined at a "Superbrawl" tournament in late spring.

BRISBANE, Australia – An energy company has found a nutty new way to power Australian homes.

Shells from the native Australian macadamia nut will be burned to provide electricity to more than 1,200 houses and a food processing plant in the northeastern part of the country, Ergon Energy announced Wednesday.

Chief executive Kim Griffith said about 5,500 tons of waste nut shells will be burned in a steam turbine at Gympie, some 185 miles north of Brisbane, Queensland's state capital.

Griffith said the $1 million turbine will generate some 7.6 gigawatt hours of power each year, and reduce greenhouse gases by 8,500 tons a year.

"The project is very exciting because it could be replicated across a range of other industries, including peanut, timber, meat, wheat and grain processing, where waste streams could generate heat, electricity and revenue," Griffith said.

TOKYO – Love cats but hate cleaning litter boxes? One Japanese toy maker has the answer: a fuzzy cat robot that meows, blinks and wants to be cuddled.

Electronics maker Omron Corp. introduced NeCoRo on Tuesday. The robotic cat has a microphone in its head and enough artificial intelligence to learn its name.

Covered in synthetic fur, it has more than 40 different feline noises, from happiness to anger. It gets mad if someone hits it but loves being stroked. And if it gets irritating, owners can always pop out the batteries.

There are no plans yet to sell NeCoRo overseas. The initial sale in Japan, starting Nov. 20, is limited to 5,000 machines, each selling for 185,000 yen – roughly $1,500.

FALLON, Nev. – A man who received a suspicious letter with amorous writings and lace panties turned it over to sheriff's deputies, who stored it in a biohazard barrel before determining it didn't come from a terrorist.

"It was from a secret admirer," Churchill County Sheriff Bill Lawry said. "We returned the letter and the underwear."

The 59-year-old man said he became concerned about the threat of anthrax contamination because the unsigned letter was mailed in an envelope with no return address.

The woman who made the overture notified the sheriff on Monday when she learned that the letter had been turned over for investigation. She told authorities she was romantically interested.

Margarine: Pretty in Pink?

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. (Reuters) – Soon pancakes with smiling pink and blue "faces" will be popping up on breakfast tables across the United States, as a company unveils bottles filled with colorful squeezable Parkay margarine.

ConAgra Dairy Foods plans to roll out in November "Electric Blue" and "Shocking Pink" margarines in easy-to-grip 10-ounce bottles designed to be kid-friendly.

"It is really designed to let kids have a little more fun in eating their vegetables, and breakfast and lunch," company executive Rich Scalise told Reuters.

Omaha, Nebraska-based ConAgra, the No. 2 U.S. food company, joins a host of other manufacturers trying to appeal to children with off-kilter colors including H.J. Heinz Co. with its green and purple ketchup. Both the ketchup and the margarine keep their familiar tastes.

Parkay margarine has been around 67 years, and squeezable margarine in bottles the last two decades. Scalise said kids preferred the blue and pink margarine over other colors tested.

"When they had both (colors), they would make faces on their pancakes – blue for the eyes and pink for the mouth," he said.

One tablespoon of the margarine provides 10 percent of the USDA recommended daily allowances for calcium and vitamins A, D and E. The margarine is expected to be available in November.

'Just-Laid-Off' Parties Boost Bar Business

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong's unemployed are drowning their sorrows and organizing "we've-just-been-laid-off" parties, giving a popular night-time entertainment district a much needed boost in business.

"A lot of people have chosen to come together during hard economic times to let out a little steam and drown their sorrows," said Richard Feldman, the chairman of Lan Kwai Fong district's association.

Feldman, who owns four restaurants and bars, said there were at least two such parties by investment bankers in the past month.

"There were about 20 who were fired and other colleagues came to make them feel better," he said. "People were into denial and so they were partying like there is no tomorrow."

High profile financial institutions that have sacked staff include Credit Suisse First Boston and Merrill Lynch.

Hong Kong's jobless rate surged to its highest level in 17 months in July-September as the global economy slowed.

Germ expert says panicky people can iron mail

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A leading bioterror expert says people who feel panicky about opening their mail amid the anthrax scare can use a hot steam iron and a moist layer of fabric to kill germs.

Ken Alibek, a top former Soviet germ warfare scientist who is now a U.S.-based author and researcher, told a surprised congressional briefing that a hot, moist steam iron and moist fabric could kill anthrax spores.

Pressed by lawmakers who were not sure if they had heard him right, he repeated, "Iron your letters," adding that a microwave oven was not as good as an iron and that including moisture was essential because spores could survive dry heat.

For large amounts of mail he recommended setting up portable gamma radiation units to sterilize letters. "This problem could be solved," he said.

Newly-Weds Hit Peeping Tom with acid

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Newly-weds in Malaysia threw acid on a youth after they spotted him peeping at them through a window, the New Straits Times said.

The 17-year-old fishmonger and two friends were caught spying on the couple at their home in Bachok, in east Malaysia, last week.

The youth suffered burns on his body after the couple realized they were being watched and threw a bottle of acid at the window, hitting him.